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Reports focus on RPD’s structure and relations with the public

The five-section patrol structure of the Rochester Police Department is working well, but the relations and trust between police officers and the community need major improvements.

Those are the findings of two new reports released this morning by Mayor Lovely Warren and Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli. Together, they address issues that have raised major concerns in Rochester and many other cities, and they make recommendations for improving both police service and community relations.

The study of patrol organization is the result of two revisions within the department in the recent past. In 2004, the department’s multiple patrol sections were combined into two, in part to try to reduce the cost of police overtime. But the police union and some community residents charged that both response time and police relations with the community had suffered.

In 2014, under Warren’s administration, the department was reorganized again, into five sections. The study of that move, announced this morning, found that the five-section model “is working successfully in practice.” It found, for instance, that overtime hours and response time declined and that the work load of officers in individual car beats is distributed equally.

The other report, on the recent “90 Days of Community Engagement” initiative, is the result of a series of community meetings throughout the city, a telephone town hall, and an on-line survey, all designed to seek the public’s opinion about police-community relations in Rochester.

The report cites eight general areas of concern. Residents said they want more diversity in the police department, that police should do a better job communicating with the community, and that the RPD should invest in more training in such areas as cultural diversity, racism, and de-escalation techniques.

The study also found that the public needs to be better educated about the duties and responsibilities of police officers and the responsibilities of citizens when interacting with police. And it found that there should be an effort to better inform the public and to promote positive police-community interactions.

The Engagement report lists 10 steps the city and the RPD will take. They include specific ways to improve communications, a police training advisory committee, a “Touch Every House” effort to have officers visit residents in their patrol section, more training of officers related to community relations and racism, a community recruitment effort, and several programs to broaden and improve police relations with children and young people.